Science Quickly

Within just a third of a second of hearing a snippet of a familiar refrain, our pupils dilate, and the brain shows signs of recognition. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few brief reports about international science and technology from Brazil to Hong Kong, including one about male elephants in India exhibiting unusual social behaviors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pumpkin’s ancestor was an incredibly bitter, tennis-ball-sized squash—but it was apparently a common snack for mastodons. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In cold, northern climates, eggs tend to be darker and browner—heat-trapping colors that allow parents to spend a bit more time away from the nest. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Green crabs learned to navigate a maze without making a single wrong turn—and remembered the skill weeks later. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The phainopepla migrates from southern California to the desert Southwest to breed in the spring before flying to California coastal woodlands to do so again in summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A gigantic fish from the Amazon has incredibly tough scales—and materials scientists are looking to them for bulletproof inspiration. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Saharan silver ant feeds on other insects that have died on the hot sands, which it traverses at breakneck (for an ant) speeds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Synthetic repellents such as DEET seem to mask the scent of our “human perfume”—making us less obvious targets for mosquitoes. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The resonant properties of your skull can amplify some frequencies and dampen others—and, in some cases, affect your hearing. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dsup protein protects DNA under conditions that create caustic free radical chemicals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rumblings on the Red Planet act like x-rays, allowing scientists to probe the hidden interior of Mars. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Algorithms are already used to remove online hate speech. Now scientists have taught an AI to respond—which they hope might spark more discourse. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino “for the development of lithium-ion batteries.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to James Peebles “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology” and to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to William G. Kaelin, Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.” They identified molecular machinery that regulates gene activity in response to changing levels of oxygen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DNA from the teeth of medieval plague victims indicates the pathogen likely first arrived in eastern Europe before spreading across the continent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists found eight species of nematodes living in California’s harsh Mono Lake—quintupling the number of animals known to live there. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tiny insects called treehoppers produce very different mating songs at higher versus lower temperatures, but the intended recipient still finds the changed songs attractive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adult corals can reshuffle their symbiotic algae species to adapt to warming waters—and, it appears they can pass those adaptations on. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The brains of those who are blind repurpose the vision regions for adaptive hearing, and they appear to do so in a consistent way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few brief reports about international science and technology from Hungary to Japan, including one about a wine grape in France that DNA testing shows has been cultivated for almost a millennium. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Western ears consider a pitch at double the frequency of a lower pitch to be the same note, an octave higher. The Tsimane’, an indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon basin, do not. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

BBC and Netflix nature documentaries consistently shy away from showing viewers the true extent to which we’ve damaged the planet. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A slight temperature difference at night between a surface losing heat and the surrounding air can be harnessed to generate electricity to power lights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices